The Sweet Far Thing

"Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring
The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.
Beauty grown sad with its eternity
Made you of us, and of the dim grey sea.
Our long ships loose thought-woven sails and wait,
For God has bid them share an equal fate;
And when at last, defeated in His wars,
They have gone down under the same white stars,
We shall no longer hear the little cry
Of our sad hearts, that may not live nor die."

-From The Rose of Battle by W.B. Yeats

The third book in the Gemma Doyle series, The Sweet Far Thing (Libba Bray), is a voyage of self-discovery as Gemma and her friends approach their debut; a rite of passage for English ladies from children into womanhood.

Gemma tries to unravel the mystery of Wilhemina Wyatt, a former Spence girl who has been appearing to her in visions with the note "The Tree of All Souls lives". To learn more about the Tree of All Souls, Gemma speaks with Circe, an enemy trapped within the well of eternity who was put there by Gemma in the previous book. However, while the door of light will not appear to Gemma, they discover another entrance in the rubble of the East Wing which has started to be rebuilt.

Unfortunately, the line between sanity & madness starts to blur after Gemma and her friends venture into the Winterlands: after which Gemma starts to see creatures from the realms in the human world. Men from the work camp start to go missing and trouble breaks out between the workers & the gypsies when symbols in blood are written on the new stones.

Can Gemma figure everything out before the magic drives her mad?

This book was definitely the longest and had the most information in it. Due to that fact, it took longer for me to read, making it difficult for me to even remember my favourite quotes (which, you'd think by now, I'd start marking with post-its). The first book delved into choices & their consequences; the second talked about secrets. This book covered both topics as well as self-discovery. It covered love & love lost; getting what you want from life instead of using "magic" to make it happen; courage & strength; and most importantly, loss. It was very fitting that the author ended this book with the debut of Gemma and Felicity into society, as this event marked a girl's entrance into womanhood.

This book also spends more times in the realms than the last one. A battle is brewing as the magic is leaking into the Winterlands from the Tree of All Souls. This is definitely the darkest book as the characters are forced to face their deepest fears and desires to gain what they want most. The story turns spooky when Gemma starts to see things that no one else can and has what others think of as fits of madness. And when Pippa starts to talk about herself as being the Chosen One.

The ending is sad & a little heartrending, but I don't think it was possible to end any other way. I'm sure I'll kick myself for not mentioning this-or-that later, but like I said, this book was the largest and has definitely been my favourite. I'm happy to say that the final books lived up to the expectations of the first and that the story progressed without cheating the readers or making light of the situations at hand. It also ended on a hopeful note: about a girl choosing her own destiny in an era where that was unheard of.